AFWVG - Emily-With-A-Y

I am a horribly neglectful blogger.

The design for Emily-With-A-Y's shift dress to go with the straitjacket. Tattered everything, patches, cogs and (of course) black and white stripes. One thing I forgot to put on the design drawing was the text. The plain side has writing from the book and some copies of a few or the drawings of Leeches and rats.

Not just any insane asylum!" She exclaimed indignantly, as though I had gravely offended her, “Though you certainly do not deserve it. You are a very lucky girl indeed, for you have been assigned a bed in the most progressively innovative, the most morally experimental, the most, ah, the most ingeniously directed medical institution for the mentally ill, led by my own dear son, Doctor Montmorency Stockhill. You are the worthy child, are now an inmate of the Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls.

The cogs on the dress were made in the same way as on the straitjacket, and all the patches/striped parts were sewn on with big red stitches because of that one outfit that EA made.

The sides are pulled in with four fabric straps that are tied at the back. I figured that the Asylum dresses wouldn't be fitted at all, instead being a one-size-fits-all affair. With the straps, it can be pulled in at the waist, giving the dress more shape while still keeping the look of 'it doesn't ft particularly well, really.' I have to thank my tutor for this idea. I was a bit stuck for an idea of how to pull it in, thinking of corset-esque lacing or some buckles like on the straitjacket. We discussed it, and she suggested having straps of the same fabric as the dress instead of more leather, and it was a genius idea.


Then there are the manacles. What kind of asylum inmate doesn't have restraints?

They're just a simple leather wristband with a brass ring popped on there. They're fastened with buckles which, although entirely ineffective for a real mad girl due to the ability to unfasten, they look damn cool like that.



The whole costume, popped on a mannequin, all set up for my degree show. I accidentally managed to find a mannequin that matched the pose of my drawing. It took me a long while to sort the hair out. Stupid small head...